Per-instance properties are now packed into a structure data type. One instancing constant buffer contains only one array of such structures.

For most platforms the instancing array sizes no longer need to be specified by user: they are instead calculated automatically (maximum allowed constant buffer size / size of the above mentioned structure type).

Instancing batch sizes are therefore improved on OpenGL and Metal, and instancing shader variants compile much faster and potentially costs less in terms of CPU-GPU data bandwidth.

HDR support in lightmap pipeline

Graphics

Lighting

Light LODs with realtime probes and baked lightmaps

Graphics

Lighting

Lighting Modes for Progressive Lightmapper

Graphics

Lighting

macOS Player Native Crash Reporting

Desktop

Model Importer Improvements

Editor

Add Markdown (.md) to the list of extensions recognized by TextScriptImporter.

Add "Preserve Hierarchy" toggle to Model Importer to prevent root transform from being stripped when it has no sibling roots.

Update SketchUp SDK.

Particle Shaders providing core particle rendering functionality

Particles

Includes Surface and Unlit shaders

Distortion

Blended Flipbooks

Soft Particle settings

Particle System Ribbons

Particles

A new Trail Module option to have particles generate a trail between each particle based on their age.

Particle System Speed Multiplier

Particles

Add a Speed Multiplier curve to the Velocity Module.

Recording Video from Editor playmode playback

Video

Implement recording to generate video from editor playmode playback.

Support for alternative display manager Wayland on desktop Linux (Preview)

Desktop

Universal Manipulator / Transform Tool

Editor

The Transform Tool combines the position, rotation and scale tools in a single tool.

Zoom in Animator Controller Window

Animation

Editor

Ability to zoom, frame & autofit in the Animator window.

2018.2.0

C# TLS provider through mbedTLS

Support for TLS 1.2 (secure socket) from .NET code

SSL/TLS Consistency

Networking

TLS 1.2 is now supported across all platforms. This brings the ability to secure your network traffic with the latest standards.

Texture Mipmap Streaming

Graphics

The Texture mipmap Streaming system gives you direct control over which mipmap levels are loaded into memory. Helping reduce the total amount of memory required for textures by only loading the mipmaps needed to render the current camera position in a scene. It trades a small cost of CPU for GPU memory saving.

TrailRenderer Improvements

Graphics

Adds a number of small improvements to the TrailRenderer:

SetPositions/AddPositions API

Trails smoothly remove their old points, to remove visual popping.

A new "Emit" checkbox, to allow trails to start/stop emitting geometry.

Add support for IL2CPP scripting backend for macOS standalone. This brings the CPU speed improvements of il2cpp to the MacOS standalone player.

Add support for IL2CPP scripting backend for windows standalone

Desktop

Scripting

Add support for IL2CPP scripting backend for windows standalone. This brings the CPU speed improvements of il2cpp to the Windows standalone player.

Animation: Weighted Tangents

Animation

This feature allows animators to create animation curves with fewer keys and smoother curves, by letting them control the weight of the tangents. Once a tangent is set to Weighted, the user can stretch it to affect the curve interpolation without adding any additional keys, for a smoother, more precise result.

Audio Sample Output API

Audio

Build Reports C# API

Build

Scripting

Allows retrieval of information about the build process after it has completed.

C# Job System

Support for asynchronous jobs in C#

C# Job system support for Navmesh navigation

AI

Constraint Components

Asset Management

Editor

Adds support for position, rotation, scale, aim and parent constraints.

Dynamic Resolution for PS4

Consoles

Graphics

Allows users to scale their render textures by a given percentage per-frame at runtime to have better control of the GPU load and maintain framerate.

GPU Instancing: Support for GI

Graphics

Lighting

SRP

Improve Crash Handling & Reporting

Desktop

Improve the user experience when Unity crashes: more sensible and informative error messages, better reporting UI, and so on.

Report crash information to Unity's Performance Reporting service. This will help Unity diagnose and eliminate common crashes.

Improve the reliability and accuracy of the crash handling process in Unity.

Adds support to the Particle System to render meshes using efficient GPU Instancing, when instancing shaders are applied to Particle Systems. On GPU that support instancing, this allows you to render more particles in less time.

Particle System Orbital/Radial Velocity

Particles

Adds new options to the Velocity over Lifetime module to add orbital and radial velocity:

Orbital velocity spins particles around their Transform component

Radial velocity propels particles out from the center

Orbital offset, which allows users to specify a custom center for the rotation.

Particle System Sub Emitter improvements

Particles

Adds the ability to trigger Sub Emitters from the Trigger Module, and also via script.

Particle System Texture Emission Shape

Particles

Take the colors and alpha from a Texture source, and use it to generate particles.

Physics C# Job system support - async raycasts

Physics

C# Job system support for async raycasts.

Presets

Editor

Allows users to:

Create and apply Preset assets directly from nearly any object inspector using the new Preset tool, or from the new API

Apply Presets with drag & drop

Set global default Presets from a Preset's inspector or from the new Preset Manager

Create importers and Components with default Presets from UI, or using a new object creation API

Display and edit Presets in the new Preset inspector

Individual types can be blacklisted to prevent them from being "presettable"

Progressive Lightmapper Large Scene Support

Graphics

Lighting

Scriptable Rendering Pipelines

Graphics

SRP

Complete rendering pipelines constructed & driven from C# code

Similar to CommandBuffers, but operate on whole sets of objects, with efficient implementations in native code

Can imagine something like “deferred shading” just being a C# script that you can also modify to your needs (change G-buffer layout etc.)

Stereo 360 Capture

xR

Experimental feature. Adds support for capturing monoscopic or stereoscopic 360 images as cubemap images. Works in the editor and at runtime.

The icons are getting a stylistic update, while being designed for greater consistency.

Unity Hub (Preview)

Hub

The Unity Hub provides a convenient new way to manage your Unity projects and installations. You can use the Hub to create your Project, associate a default version of the Unity Editor with the project, and manage the installation of multiple versions of the Editor.

Implement multi-threading support in WebAssembly using the upcoming Shared Array Buffers feature in Javascript.

Animation Generic IK

Animation

User definable IK chains

Animation Stream API (C# jobs)

Animation

Apple Watch Basic Compatibility

Mobile

Audio Recording

Audio

Add the ability to record Main and Mixer outputs to file

Automatic convex decompositions

Physics

Integrate V-HACD

A single mesh can be automatically decomposed into a set of convex MeshColliders

Helps with collision detection performance and accuracy

Enables sophisticated meshes on dynamic bodies and triggers

Basic Player Localization

Consoles

Desktop

Editor

Mobile

UI

The basic player localization feature is a set of features to add localization support in games made with Unity.

Build Reporting

Deployment

Deeper, more prominent reporting of information about the player build process and outputs.

Building Android games as ARM64 bit executables

Mobile

Adding ARM64 bit runtime support for Android, based on IL2CPP technology. Currently, only 32-bit ARM or x86 builds for Android can be produced using Unity. Almost all current chipsets ship as 64-bit however, and we're not leveraging the advantages that brings: running 64-bit Android apps will have performance benefits, plus games will be able to address more than 4 GB of memory space.

Built-in support for Resonance Audio spatializer

xR

Integrated support for the Resonance Audio spatializer in the Unity Editor.

C# Platform Certificate Store Synchronization

Certificate validation using .Net or UnityWebRequest APIs now validates against the platform system CA store where possible.
On XboxOne, PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS, which doesn't provide access to system store validation, an embedded CA store is used for validation.

Distributed LAN lighting builds

Graphics

Lighting

Polish the Hackweek X project on distributing lighting builds (precompute/baking) across machines on a LAN. The aim is to make a system that will automatically discover available machines and use them for time consuming lighting builds. No setup should be required. Video .

Editor DPI Emulation

Editor

Extend Game View resolutions by also emulating a given DPI.
Particularly useful for getting accurate representations of UI layouts on target devices.

Freeform Animation : Modular Rigging

Animation

A form of rigging that uses a collection of interchangeable parts that connect together to create a modular rig. Each interchangeable part is comprised of a series of RigConstraints that defines how the part moves, deforms, and is influenced by other parts of the ControlRig.

Garbage Collector Upgrade

Scripting

Upgrade to a modern, generational, low latency Garbage Collector (GC). This will reduce stutters and time spikes spent in GC during collection.

GPU lightmapper

Graphics

Lighting

Support for GPU acceleration of the Progressive Lightmapper. On machines with beefy GPUs lightmap baking with the Progressive Lightmapper will be significantly faster. This will improve iteration and end-to-end baking times. Does not affect the Enlighten baking backend.

Graphics: Expose more formats to C#

Graphics

Allows creating texture and rendertexture with all the formats supported by modern GPUs

IMGUI Debugger

Editor

Gives the users ability to easily view all the draw calls for the IMGUI, with the option to open the source file in the right location, view all the data used to render the item.

Improved Prefab Workflows

Editor

This update introduces a number of improvements to Unity’s Prefab workflows.

Nested Prefabs. Yes, it’s finally happening.

Prefab Variants. This feature lets a Prefab inherit the properties of another Prefab.

Prefab Mode. New workflow for editing Prefab assets in isolation. You’ll no longer need to drag a Prefab to an open Scene to edit it.

Localization of Editor UI (Japanese)

Editor

Localization of the Editor UI. (No runtime or building localized assets)

Recording API allows developers to record their gameplay moments so that can be shared to different audiences.

Script Api Updater: Expose APIUpdater to Asset Store authors

Scripting

Give Asset Store authors the ability change their APIs with less friction and retain compatibility

Terrain System

Graphics

Overhaul of Unity's terrain system with a focus on rendering of many hundreds of thousands of terrain objects, a tool set for fast world building, foliage placement, natural landscape decoration tooling.

Visual Merge

Collaborate

Editor

Allows you to visually compare differences in your Unity project for prefabs and scenes.